Book

Description

STRUCTURE, AGENCY, AND THE KATIBA A Theoretical Explanation of the Emergence and Evolution of Terrorism in the West African Sahel Why has terrorism persisted and expanded across the West African Sahel despite extensive national, regional, and international counterterrorism efforts? What explains the ability of extremist organizations to adapt, consolidate their influence, and extend their operations across national borders? In this book, Sharif Abdul-Latif Yushaw offers a theoretical and comparative examination of the emergence, evolution, and expansion of terrorism in the West African Sahel. The book explores the interaction between structural vulnerabilities, including weak governance, historical marginalization, socioeconomic deprivation, political exclusion, and porous borders, and the strategic agency of terrorist organizations in exploiting these conditions. Drawing on Relative Deprivation Theory and Organizational Learning Theory, the study explores how these conditions enable terrorism while organizational adaptation and strategic learning sustain its expansion. Through a comparative analysis of Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), it examines katiba (brigade) formation as a mechanism of organizational learning, decentralization, and local embeddedness. Ultimately, the book argues that understanding and addressing terrorism requires examining not only the conditions that enable its emergence, but also the organizational processes through which it is sustained, transformed, and expanded.